Unsurprisingly the Moon administration is claiming they can’t blame the North Koreans for sinking the Cheonan while the Kim regime rubs this sinking in their faces by sending the mastermind of the attack to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics:

The South Korean government said Friday that it is difficult to pinpoint who led North Korea’s deadly sinking of the warship Cheonan in 2010, amid controversy surrounding a planned visit by a senior Pyongyang official widely suspected of masterminding the attack.

Kim Yong-chol, a top North Korean official, will come to the South for a three-day visit on Sunday as the head of the North’s high-level delegation to PyeongChang Winter Olympics closing ceremony later in the day. Conservatives and families of the 46 victims are strongly opposing his visit.

“It is clear that North Korea was blamed for the warship sinking and Kim was leading North Korea’s reconnaissance bureau at that time,” Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman at Seoul’s unification ministry, told a press briefing.

“But it is also the fact that there is a limitation in pinpointing who was responsible for the incident.”  [Yonhap]

The radical leftists in South Korea probably think that former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye swam out and sunk the Cheonan before pinning the blame on North Korea.  This reminds me just like what happened in 2002 after the West Sea Naval Battle where six ROK sailors were killed by a North Korean attack.  The left wing Roh Moo-hyun administration deflected blame for the attack and actually blamed the sailors:

In commemoration of the second anniversary of the West Sea naval battle, memorial services were held at the headquarters of the Navy’s 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday. Hwang Eun-tae, father of the late Petty Officer First Class Hwang Do-hyun, weeps while reading a letter in front of his son’s portrait.

The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.

Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.”

I can only imagine the frustration the surviving family members of the 46 sailors who died on the Cheonan will experience when they see the red carpet laid out by the ROK government for a murderer like Kim Yong-chol.

South Korea’s infamous “molar daddy” has been rightfully given the death penalty after raping and killing a 14-year old girl:

A Seoul court on Wednesday meted out a death sentence for a man charged with killing a school friend of his daughter after sexually molesting her.

The Seoul Northern District Court handed down the gravest possible punishment on Lee Young-hak, 36, who had confessed to choking a 14-year-old girl to death in his home last September after committing lewd acts on her body while she was drugged.

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty.

The court sentenced his daughter, whose identity was not revealed, to four years in prison for luring the friend to the house and helping her father dump her body. But her sentence can be extended up to six years in case of an infraction during her four-year imprisonment.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates notable progress has been made on a new structure near the launch pad at North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station.https://t.co/gD7m0yIImh

— 38 North (@38NorthNK) February 22, 2018

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L) and Ivanka Trump, the U.S. president’s daughter and senior advisor, walk out of a dinner reception at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Feb. 23, 2018. Ivanka Trump arrived in South Korea earlier in the day for a four-day stay to lead a U.S. delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which is scheduled for Feb. 25. (Yonhap)

People are too quick to use the racism word, inappropriate is a more accurate description of this:

Dutch skater Jan Blokhuijsen has sparked a dog meat controversy at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

At Wednesday’s press conference for the men’s team pursuit speed skating event, in which his team won a bronze medal, Blokhuijsen said, “Please treat dogs better in this country.”

The comment came out of nowhere. When reporters did not have questions, his teammate Sven Kramer asked, “All Japanese (reporters)?” And then Blokhuijsen made the remark before they left the conference.

After the news went viral, many Koreans expressed fury, claiming that it was racist and ignorant of a different culture. Some claimed the case should officially be reported to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“The IOC should punish him for making that racist statement,” a netizen said.

Another said, “The Korean government should file an official complaint. I think most young people do not eat dog meat anyway. But some still do, because that’s what we used to eat when we were poor and it became a custom.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

As I expected Ivanka Trump continued to communicate the US’s position of maximum pressure on North Korea to President Moon:

Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, reiterated a maximum pressure campaign against North Korea, in a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Friday.

She said Washington and Seoul “reaffirmed commitment to a maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized,” ahead of a dinner hosted by Moon at Cheong Wa Dae.

“We continue to reaffirm our joint values and strategic cooperation as partners and allies,” she said.

Ivanka leads the U.S. delegation which arrived in Seoul earlier in the day, to attend the Games’ closing ceremony on Sunday. The delegation includes Senator James Risch, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Allison Hooker, a National Security Council (NSC) official specializing in Korean affairs.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the article also says she is not expected to meet with the North Korean delegation either.  Outside of the North Korean delegation suddenly saying they are open to denuclearization and ending their ICBM program I don’t see why the US delegation should meet with them?

USFK has some new capability forward deployed on the peninsula:

The U.S. is to deploy new attack drones in South Korea that could be used to kill North Korean leaders and launch pinpoint strikes on its missile launch pads.

Twelve Gray Eagle/MQ-1Cs will arrive at an air base in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province in March and April. Their deployment coincides with joint South Korea-U.S. drills that will be staged in early April right after the closing of the Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang.

Construction of a hangar and other support facilities was completed late last month, and support personnel have already arrived.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

For every asshole taxi driver that refused a ride, refused to stop, drove away as I was opening a door, tried to cheat me, or even stopped to argue with a bus driver while the fare was running–Karma's a bitch, huh? https://t.co/1hbt3sWiL7

— KingSejong (@KingSejong) February 22, 2018

South Korean rapper CL responds to reporters’ questions during a press conference at the Main Press Center in PyeongChang, northeastern South Korea, on Feb. 21, 2018, about her plan to take the stage at the closing ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, scheduled for Feb. 25. (Yonhap)

Kim Jong-un’s older brother, Jong-chul who was passed over for the North Korean leadership supposedly lives a normal family life in Pyongyang:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s older brother Jong-chol is married and has a son, according to a North Korea source on Wednesday.

Kim Jong-chol was passed over for the leadership for various obscure reasons, with rumors ranging from a dangerous penchant for rock dinosaur Eric Clapton to “effeminacy.” But the source said he leads “a normal life.”

The source did not reveal when Kim tied the knot and had a child.

Kim Jong-un himself has two sons and a daughter and his sister Yo-jong a boy and is expecting another child.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.